A few years ago, I ran across a recipe while looking for an easy sugar cookie recipe. My hubby loves sugar cookies, but sometimes they are just a pain to make! I don’t like rolling them out, then trying to cut shapes or whatever, then attempting to transfer to a cookie sheet without messing them up, etc. Maybe y’all have none of these problems because you’re probably a smarter baker than myself, but I found a recipe by Laura Sterns on All Recipes that works for me!!! Yay!!! These are the yummiest, softest sugar cookies ever and there’s no rolling out dough involved! Just roll into little balls and drop them on the cookie sheet. That’s it! So I thought I’d share with you (with my tweaks), a printable recipe (at the bottom of this post), as well as a great cream cheese frosting recipe. I love these topped with fluffy cream cheese!

Does anyone else make a total MESS of the kitchen when you bake??

I had a couple comments on these jars I use for sugar and flour on Instagram. Y’all, these are just cheap jars from Hobby Lobby (I think Target sells the same ones) that I got when they were half off (uh..every other week!), and I hand lettered on vinyl chalk board decals from Etsy.

Check those little cookies out! Don’t they look so soft and chewy? They are!

The original recipe calls for adding colorful sugar to these. That’s all perfectly fine, but I prefer homemade cream cheese frosting on mine. (See my note on the recipe print-out about adding the frosting after the cookies are done.)

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, shortening and sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, stir into the creamed mixture until the dough comes together. Roll dough into walnut sized balls (I do a little smaller and get around 35 cookies out of a batch), and roll the balls in the sugar (omit if you choose to do frosting). Place them on an unprepared cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.

Bake cookies about 10 minutes until the bottom of cookie is light brown. (Cooking times may vary depending on your oven.) Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks. If you choose to add cream cheese frosting, I prefer to keep the frosting refrigerated and just spread a dab on the cookies as I eat them. In my opinion, the cookies get soggy if they’re all frosted and stored that way.

I don’t know about y’all, but when fall rolls around, I’m all about the comfort food! I made this chicken pot pie the other night and it turned out delicious, so I made it again tonight! Much better than the store bought stuff…as if you needed me to tell you that.

Trust me when I tell you this was amazing…Hubby loved it and the kids loved it, too (which is really saying something). 😉

When I need a quick dessert for a party or dinner, or just to give someone a special treat, this is my go to when time is short. I promise you, this will be the easiest dessert/fudge you’ve ever made! Seriously only takes 5 minutes to whip it up! I made some today when I needed a homemade touch for a gift basket because my time was limited.

Add approximately half the peanut butter to the frosting and mix well.

Spread in a 9×9 pan lined with parchment paper (if you don’t want the fudge to stick). 😉

Scatter the chocolate chips on top of the fudge and carefully press them into the fudge. They’ll fall right off after the fudge sets if you don’t press them in.

Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

ENJOY!

Today, as I said, I was putting these in a gift basket, so I wanted something cute, but easily kept. I had some mason jars on hand, as well as a roll of brown kraft paper I got here inexpensively. (Just a tip – brown kraft paper has so many uses so it’s GREAT to keep on hand!) Anyway, I cut a small piece and placed under the mason jar lid and tied some twine around it to top it off. Makes for a simple, but cute gift.

And there you have it, friends. 5 minutes! Just see if you can keep from eating the whole pan of fudge in a day!

I’ve had the itch to bake lately, probably because I was doing the Whole30 eating plan (more on that later, hopefully) and since there’s absolutely NO sweets on the plan, that pretty much left baking out of the question. Yesterday was one of those lazy afternoons where I should’ve been doing a million other things, but a storm moved in, it cooled off outside and I just decided to bake some cookies. Chocolate chip cookies are probably my most favorite EVER, but I made some and changed up my recipe and I think they turned out absolutely wonderful! Even Hubby, who isn’t big on chocolate chip cookies, thought these were pretty great.

I added in some peanut butter chips on a few of them, because there’s no better combo than chocolate and peanut butter, right?

I had a little help finishing off that milk. 🙂

I used a regular chocolate chip recipe (this time from the back of my Nestle Toll House chocolate chip bag), and added 2 boxes of Jello brand Cheesecake instant pudding mix to the dry ingredients.

If you would like a printable recipe, click here for my take on these cookies!

Well, it’s snowing as I write and very cold. For me, the cold calls for comfort food. One of my favs is chicken and dumplings. I’ve had a few people ask me for my recipe lately, so thought I’d share here. My mom taught me to make them and now, I don’t remember if this is exactly what she does or if it’s my “tweaked” version. I tend to tweak everything! It’s not hard to make and surely not fancy, but boy is it yummy!

First, boil your cut up chicken in water. When the chicken is cooked, I normally dump some of the water, and leave enough for flavor and to cover the chicken. Next, I add milk. I don’t use any measurements, it’s all just kinda guess as you go. 🙂 Add salt and pepper (I like a lot) and let it come to a boil, watching and stirring as needed so it doesn’t stick and burn. When it boils, add your biscuits. Let the biscuits cook. They will puff up at first, and then shrink down when they are done. After you know your biscuits are done, you may want to season some more to taste. That’s pretty much it! You may want more or less water and/or milk depending on how juicy you want your dumplings. Hubby likes them thick, so I don’t use as much milk as I used to.

Here’s a horrible phone pic of the last pot I made a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, that time when one can of biscuits exploded in my face and was in my hair, my scarf, on my clothes, all over the kitchen walls and floor, clear across the room. Yeah, that time. 🙂

A couple of days ago, I was craving chocolate chip cookies but I didn’t want to make a whole batch. I could literally eat the whole batch myself because Hubby isn’t big on cookies. So most of the time, I only make cookies for special occasions. Anyway, I’ve seen those “cookie in a mug” recipes and thought I’d try it out. My first two tries following 2 different recipes were YUCK-O. Dry and disgusting. I finally did my own recipe and cooked less time and hey, my cookie in a mug isn’t bad. But if you try this, beware. I love my cookies warm, gooey and very chocolatey. 🙂

Stir all ingredients together and microwave for 40 seconds. Time may vary depending on your microwave, but I definitely think 60 seconds is WAY too long (which is what most of these recipes call for) It will cook a little more on it’s own after microwaving.

It turns out warm, gooey and very chocolatey. Very rich. I don’t know how often I could eat this, but it certainly takes care of a craving without spending lots of time in the kitchen!

Ok, I know my blog has suffered from neglect this past week and a half. Life has been busy and other things have gotten in the way! Our kitchen is now functioning (minus a garbage disposal), so I’ve gotten to cook twice this week! YIPPEE!! (so sick of eating out!) I haven’t cooked at home in about four months. And let me tell ya, with our selection of restaurants around here (it’s WAY better than it used to be but still limited), eating out gets SO old (and fattening)! Anywho, last night I made these garlic chicken puffs…I know they’re supposed to be an appetizer, but they looked so yummy that I just made them full size and that was part of the meal. They were SOOOO good. And just as unhealthy as eating out. LOL So, they’ve got my stamp of approval if you want to try them. 🙂

Mix cream cheese, garlic and chicken until well blended. Unroll crescent rolls and cut each triangle into 2 triangles. Place 1 tsp of chicken mixture on the center of each triangle and fold the corners in over the creamy mixture. Place on cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 12-14 minutes.

*I added more chicken than it called for and also didn’t need to cook them as long as the recipe says.

I didn’t take a picture of mine, but here’s one from the web. I got this recipe from Pinterest, which led me to the source of the recipe and picture.